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Monday, 8 December 2014

The initial reason for the holiday was to see my sister perform in the ballet over there (which we did, 6 times over) but we also decided to make a road trip out of it. My Dad and I hired a car when we arrived in Wellington and drove over 1000km throughout the week to different little towns that each had their own style and backstory (such as Napier and their Art Deco street signs and shops).

We drove around narrow, one way roads, through native NZ bushland, along steep and curvy bends in scarily heavy rain and around absolutely gorgeous bays. Honestly, if you want to experience the most beautiful parts of New Zealand, a car is a great way to go.

My favourite place that we visited was a fisherman's town called Coromandel. It was a reasonable sized town in comparison to some of the other minute cottages we passed, it was extremely neat (as with most of the towns we passed by) and each shop was carefully painted to match the pastel/striped theme going on. I think we also lucked out with the weather when we stayed here because there was hardly a cloud in sight, very unusual for New Zealand.

The food in Coromandel was great (if you find the right place, I don't recommend you try the local fish and chip shop. Unless you have an acquired taste for cardboard), and the motel we stayed in, 'The Olive Tree', was also a highlight of my trip. For instance, the shower in this motel was the strangest, most entertaining shower I have ever come across. It looked a little like a time machine and when you hopped inside there was a mirror with a control panel below. The control panel allowed changing neon lights to flash about the shower, music to boom out of the speakers and it even told me the temperature outside. The fun didn't end there, the shower also had a seat and a million and one different shower heads that sprayed water out in all different directions of the booth, depending on what setting you put it on. Honestly, I was in fits of laughter for a good amount of time when I saw it (and don't tell me you wouldn't be too)!! Not to mention the tap was a little space agent looking too.

The rest of the trip after we dropped off the hire car was spent exploring Auckland and one of the islands close by. Auckland also had some great places for food (to be expected really, considering it's a bigger city) but you do have to walk down odd alleyways and side streets in order to find them.

Driving around the coast near Coromandel

Two of many, many sheep in New Zealand

Napier Beach

Napier Art Deco

Although I had an awesome time adventuring around NZ, I was definitely ready to come home. I was exhausted and even as I sit here typing this blog post, my eyes sting and strain to concentrate on the screen from powering on 2 hours of sleep and no coffee, but I'm determined not to sleep too early.

I. can. do. this!

I hope you've all had a wonderful week and are getting excited about Christmas because it's just around the corner!! Yippee!!!